F# permutations

Question

I need to generate permutations on a given list. I managed to do it like this

let rec Permute (final, arr) = 
    if List.length arr > 0 then
        for          


        

Answer 1

It depends on what you mean by "better". I'd consider this to be slightly more elegant, but that may be a matter of taste:

(* get the list of possible heads + remaining elements *)
let rec splitList = function
| [x] -> [x,[]]
| x::xs -> (x, xs) :: List.map (fun (y,l) -> y,x::l) (splitList xs)

let rec permutations = function
| [] -> [[]]
| l -> 
    splitList l 
    |> List.collect (fun (x,rest) ->
         (* permute remaining elements, then prepend head *)
         permutations rest |> List.map (fun l -> x::l))

This can handle lists with duplicate elements, though it will result in duplicated permutations.